Conscious City Guide: Guide to Spending Time and Money Consciously in Philly

Image via D. Tavani for Visit PhiladelphiaEditor's Note: Conscious Magazine is teaming up with This Good World to share a monthly guide all about “spending time and money consciously in cities all across the US". Find out more about This Good World and check out their feature here.

This Good World: We are a search + discovery platform for businesses doing good things and we're bottled up with excitement to share these handpicked stories with you. Follow us at This Good World.

Next stop on the Conscious Magazine x This Good World train: Philadelphia.
It’s undeniable ­­Philly has a heart and soul that’s tough to match. So, whether you
a. consider the City of Brotherly Love your stomping grounds
b. are in town and want to support a few places that care about the things you care about, or
c. dig discovering stories of businesses committed to doing good things regardless of where they are, please check out these fine Philadelphia- ­based establishments.

Mugshots serves up great coffee (of course) and fresh, locally farmed foods daily. While they specialize in vegan and gluten free grub, they also claim the best bacon in town for you meat lovers out there.

The shop, which purchases 100% wind energy, sends its more than 10 tons of annual organic waste to local farms for chicken feed and compost. You’re also likely to find Mugshots participating in and sponsoring community events, including Bingo nights at the local elementary school!

Looking for a way to spend some time volunteering in Philly? Rebuilding Together Philadelphia is a great place to start. Rebuilding Together brings a community of volunteers together to help repair and rebuild homes in low ­income neighborhoods.

Volunteers work alongside homeowners and their families to make essential home repairs, focusing on “warm, safe and dry” issues. Volunteers restore value to homes, elevating the quality of life of individuals and families.

Many RTP homeowners face severe health and safety problems right in their own homes. By volunteering with this incredible organization, you can play a part in ridding these homes of many of these threats.

Need a place to store all that money you’re thinking about using to spend consciously? Grab a wallet from Bregga & Co. ­­ a design and manufacturing company specializing in quality handmade leather goods.

The team at Bregga only uses leathers colored using water based aniline dyes and products free of vinyl and other plastic coatings. No harsh chemicals here.

To bring social and community benefit directly to Philadelphia, employees at Bregga participate in social outreach programs such as Canstruction, a structural exhibition contest that aims feed and inspire the needy one can at a time.

If you’ve been in Philly pub in the last 20 years, you’re probably familiar with Yards. This Philly staple not only brews up great pints, they do so with a sense of social and community responsibility as a top priority.

Want to look fresh next time you stroll through Center City? Well, you can’t do that in wrinkled up, static -clinged clothing. Pick up some Bog Berry Dryer Balls and throw one in with your next load of laundry.

In between sourcing local materials and supporting their hometown Philly community events, the founders at Bog Berry sometimes even find time to enjoy a glass of wine after a long day of work. We dig that.

Need an ice cold refreshment on one of these final days of Summer? How about swinging by Little Baby’s Ice Cream for some hand­made, small­batch, super­premium ice cream. Little Baby’s is not only changing the game on ice cream flavors, they’re serving things up with a massive side of responsibility.

One quick stop at one of their locations or a short glance at their website is enough to show you these guys do things differently in the ice cream world. Sustainability, community partnerships and all around good business practices are certainly in the Little Baby’s DNA. Aside from their world headquarters location on Franklin St. and their Cedar Park Embassy location, you can find Little Baby’s at a few different Philly retailers, satellite locations and even riding around on a tricycle or two.

Thanks again for taking a few minutes to check out a few of these businesses in Philly doing good things! Once again, we’ll be back next month with another stop along the map with our friends at Conscious Magazine. In the meantime, you can check out many more businesses doing good things all across the US at thisgoodworld.com.

From the Editor
At Conscious, we are inspired by remarkable people, and so we set out to tell stories that highlight real human interactions and human dignity. You can read more stories like this when you pick up your copy of Conscious Magazine. Subscribe today via our Conscious Shop and subscribe to Conscious Updates.